No Beards—And That's Final

The Yankees Have No Intention of Ever Dropping the Boss's Rules on Facial Hair

By

Daniel Barbarisi

Updated Feb. 23, 2013 10:00 a.m. ET

There are times when Yankee general manager Brian Cashman has to be the bad cop. He marches through the Yankee locker room, and when he notices a player violating what has become one of the Yankees' most notorious, and idiosyncratic, team rules, he lets them know—though he tries to be subtle about it.

"I have to go around to guys every now and then and keep them honest," Cashman said. "The line I usually use, I ask them, 'Is your rotator cuff OK?' And they say, 'Huh? Yeah. Why?'"

Cashman pauses.

ENLARGE

From top, Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and Kevin Youkilis before and after they joined the Yankees.
Getty images (5), bottom right: Associated Press

"And I say, well, obviously you're having trouble getting that razor up to your face. So I figured you're having shoulder problems," Cashman said.

Since the reign of George Steinbrenner, the Yankees have famously prohibited their players from wearing facial hair beyond mustaches, and from growing their hair long. In the 1970s, the shave-up-or-ship-out policy was part of an effort to keep the hairy, wild members of the "Bronx Zoo" World Series teams in check.

As the Yankees evolved into all-business squads full of veterans who pitch high-priced Movado watches but avoid barroom brawls, the policy has become symbolic of the team's corporate nature and attitude.

It has also given some players pause about joining the Yankees. This week, Tampa Bay Rays ace David Price, a noted free spirit, told Fox Sports that he wouldn't sign a long-term deal with the Yankees, or any team, that had a policy like that.

But he is the exception. Despite the Price flap, the Yankees vow the policy is here to stay, and manager Joe Girardi said he likes having it in place—the clean-cut look fits with the team's professional attitude.

"It's who we are. It was Mr. Steinbrenner's rule, and I respect that," Girardi said.

Cashman said he has never had a player cite the policy as a reason for not coming to the team, and expects he never will. Players who come to the Yankees with facial hair say they hate shaving it off, but they get it done—it's part of becoming a Yankee, with all that entails.

"It was a sad day," reliever David Aardsma said about shaving his goatee this winter. "You have it all off-season and I'd been used to having it for such a long time. It was a sad shave."

New Yankee Kevin Youkilis was well known for his facial hair as a member of the Boston Red Sox, where he sported a mangy goatee of varied lengths. Despite the association, he didn't seem to mind hacking it off as part of his one-year, $12 million Yankee contract.

"I think I'm not the type of person who kept it well-groomed at all times, anyway—the length varied all the time. I'm not all that picky about my looks," Youkilis said with a shrug.

Even Cashman grows what he calls his "winter goatee," shaving it before the start of every season. (Girardi has never grown facial hair, saying he has "spots" that don't fill in.) So normally, it's no cause for concern. There have been exceptions, of course. In 1991, team captain Don Mattingly was benched for refusing to cut his long hair.

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David Wells, the portly lefty who pitched a perfect game for New York in 1998, bristled at being forced to remove his goatee when he pitched for the team in the late 1990s, and said that the Yankees could feel free to fine him for not complying.

"I had a fat face. A double chin," Wells said. "I had a little gobbler down there, and no matter how hard I worked out, I couldn't lose my chin. So I wanted some hair down there.

"I'm a grown man, I'm going to want a goatee," he said.

But when push came to, er, shave, Wells wasn't willing to face the wrath of The Boss. He shaved the goatee and stuck with a mustache.

"I smartened up. I talked a good game, and then at the last minute I shaved it. I didn't want to deal with George. When you get called up to George's office, it's not a good thing," Wells said.

Even though the imposing Steinbrenner patriarch no longer runs the Yankees, they're still the team with the deepest pockets. And Wells said that if they offer Price a massive contract when he hits free agency in 2015, there's no way he's turning it down over a facial hair rule.

"Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but deep down, if there was an opportunity for a life-changing contract, he's shaving his damn beard," Wells said.

Price himself said Friday that he had actually trimmed his beard in the last few days, but that it wasn't going anywhere. Without it, he said, he looks "like I'm 10 years old."

He also clarified that he didn't begrudge the Yankees their policy, and said that he respects the organization greatly.

But he also said that he expects rules like these to fade as the players continue to become more and more independent, and as teams that have few rules, like the Rays under open-minded manager Joe Maddon, enjoy sustained success.

"Like Joe always says, he wants us to be comfortable in our own skin," Price said. "It's what he does really well, and that's why we get the best out of everybody we have here."

"I think it will weed itself out, maybe not in 10 years or 15 or 20. But at some point I think it will," Price said.

I hate the Yankees, but love this rule. As a San Franciscan, and Giants fan, I have always wanted to take the clippers to Brian Wilson's beard. Heck, this off season, even Tim Lincecum cut his hair short. Progress indeed!

@Kerry Fitzpatrick That somebody accepts your work, as well, so they accept your intricacies. For instance, it's called being a contractor, not a serf; it's a complex series of negotiations, and not a one-way street. Being an employer doesn't make you superior to your employees, and that's the attitude on which America was built. Sorry if you haven't experienced this in your career, but I hope that your future endeavors are filled with respectful and 360-degree relations between execs and staff.

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